The Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin

narû of Naram-Sin

Anonymous / tradition, framed as the autobiography of Naram-Sin of Akkad · c. 18th-7th century BC (likely an Old Babylonian composition; the fullest surviving copy is from Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh) · Babylon (Iraq) · history

Framed as Naram-Sin's own account of a catastrophic war against a horde of supernatural enemy kings, the text argues, against the king's own famous impulsiveness in the Curse of Agade tradition, that a ruler who ignores unfavorable omens and fights anyway courts national disaster.